The marketplace continues to demand lighter and thinner electronic devices. As a result, even the manufactures of consumer products are required to produce lighter, thinner products for competing in the market. By virtue of this, electric cookers of compact design, such as electro-magnetic oven, electric rice cooker, and so on, which are cheaper and simpler to operate, are going to replace the standing of the conventional gas oven in our kitchen.
Since the aforesaid electric cookers are powered by electricity, it is important to be able to control and protect the power devices used in the electric cookers. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a function block diagram depicting a power control module of a conventional electric cooker. As seen in FIG. 1, the prior-art power control module comprises: a micro controller unit (MCU) 11, an input unit 12, an output unit 13, a detection circuit 14, a drive circuit of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) 15, an output circuit of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) 16, an exciter-coil circuit 17, and a power circuit 18. Wherein, the input unit 12 further comprises a keyboard 121 and a temperature sensor 122, and the output unit further comprises a fan 131, a buzzer 132 and a display 133. With respect to the power control module of FIG. 1, it is noted that at least four comparators are required for enabling the MCU 11 to operate corresponding to the signals of synchronous (SYN), oscillation (OS), over-voltage (OV) and over-current (OC), etc. detected by the detection circuit 14. Moreover, for enabling the MCU 11 to execute a process of power control and circuit protection, more comparators along with other peripheral components are required. Thus, the prior-art power control module will have a complex control circuit that cause a high manufacturing cost. It is therefore in need of a cheaper and simpler power control apparatus.